Vancouver handing out $50,000 worth of crack pipes

If you’re a crack cocaine smoker living in Vancouver B.C., you’re in luck.

City officials are distributing new crack pipes to its non-injection drug users in an attempt to curb hepatitis C and HIV rates and improve overall health and safety.

The giveaway program, which is costing the city between $50,000 and $60,000, will start in the fall. Besides the unused crack pipes, Vancouver will also give drug users mouthpieces, filters and condoms.

From the Vancouver Sun:

Health officials already provide mouthpieces for crack pipes but not the pipe themselves. This means many drug users are sharing the glass pipes, which may be old or chipped, and are at risk of contracting a disease, such as hepatitis C, from cuts on their mouths, or respiratory illness or pneumonia from inhaling crumbling filters or the crack directly into their lungs.

The goal of the program is to make make clean pipes as accessible as new needles are for heroine users, who can visit the city’s needle exchanges or safe-injection sites.